(C) Pennsylvania Capital-Star
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Dear Carter, we need to do everything we can to make sure your future is bright • Pennsylvania Capital-Star [1]
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Date: 2025-06-27 09:35:00+00:00
Carter, a 15-year-old sophomore, walked into our summer school classroom with a smile that could light up a stadium. It was my first time teaching high schoolers, and I was nervous.
But Carter — confident, articulate, and full of charm — quickly put me at ease. He spoke with sophistication, shared his dream of becoming an interior designer, and talked excitedly about acai bowls and fashion trends. So when a reading pretest revealed he recognized just 23% of letter sounds and was reading and writing at a kindergarten level, I was shocked.
Carter’s story is not unique—and that’s exactly the problem. According to the 2024 Nation’s Report Card (NAEP), a staggering 71% of Pennsylvania eighth graders scored basic or below basic in reading. While headlines often focus on early elementary reading struggles, too many older students quietly slip through the cracks, lacking foundational literacy skills by the time the curriculum shifts to “reading to learn.”
By then, the help they need is often unavailable. Teachers are expected to bridge these enormous gaps without the training or tools to do so. They want to help students succeed, but too many are entering classrooms without the tools they need to support children who read and write years below their age-appropriate grade level. We are losing a generation of students to a literacy crisis that is both preventable and solvable.
Here’s where we can start: Require every teacher, regardless of grade level or content area, to receive evidence-based training in the science of reading. My personal struggle to access high-quality science of reading training, despite scholarships and grants, highlights a widespread systemic barrier for dedicated teachers. Our state must prioritize professional learning initiatives, partnering with experts to provide the essential skills educators need. No teacher should face such obstacles when striving to improve student literacy.
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We can leverage the Pennsylvania Reading Leadership Council, formed in January 2025 to advise the Pennsylvania Department of Education on the development and maintenance of reading instruction and curriculum. This council can help ensure that all teacher training aligns with the science of reading.
During my 16th year as a teacher, I completed the AIM Institute for Learning & Research’s Pathways to Proficient Reading course, which provided me with a deep, research-backed understanding of how children learn to read, practical strategies, and ongoing support to implement that knowledge effectively, ultimately leading to improved literacy outcomes for my students.
The course content is explicitly designed around the vast body of research on how the brain learns to read. This includes critical components like phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Before completing this course, I lacked the strategies to help students like Carter — students who had missed out on explicit instruction in phonics, spelling patterns, and syllables. This course gave me a clear understanding of how children learn to read and what to do when they struggle.
With this knowledge, I was able to give Carter what he’d been missing: instruction grounded in structure, not guesswork. In just six weeks, he gained six months of reading growth. On the last day of our program, Carter smiled and said, “I used to hate reading, but I kind of like it now.” He even asked to take home some of the stories we’d read together, “Beds for the Kids” and “On the Job With Bill”— and he added “kindergarten teacher” to his list of possible careers.
If that’s what six weeks of structured literacy can do, imagine what’s possible with sustained, statewide training and support for all teachers.
In 2024, Louisiana’s fourth-grade reading scores soared 32% above the national average after partnering with the AIM Institute. Louisiana isn’t the only state driving change through teacher training. Mississippi, also collaborating with experts in the field, achieved a stunning feat: first in the nation for 4th grade and 8th-grade reading on NAEP results. Pennsylvania must follow suit. We need a similar partnership with the AIM Institute to equip every educator to teach reading and writing effectively.
It’s time for Pennsylvania to stop waiting and start leading.
By encouraging the Literacy Leadership Council to partner with science of reading experts to train teachers in effective literacy instruction, we can ensure every child learns to read and write, building a stronger future for our Commonwealth. Every student should be able to walk into a classroom and be met by a teacher who knows how to teach them to decode words, understand language structures, and unlock the world of reading, just like I did with Carter.
Sara Smith is a 2nd grade English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher and Wilson Reading System instructor at Taggart Elementary School in Philadelphia. She is a 2024-2025 Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellow.
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